Museum-quality reading for art's sake

One of the most recognizable paintings on the planet, Grant Wood's American Gothic has elicited considerable shares of angst, intrigue and amusement over the years. Cultural historian Steven Biel minutely examines Wood's iconic double portrait in a lively new book, American Gothic: A Life of America's Most Famous Painting. Biel's insightful, humorous and well-researched discussion touches on...

Makes you wanna Scream'

<b>Makes you wanna Scream'</b> Edward Dolnick's <b>The Rescue Artist: A True Story of Art, Thieves, and the Hunt for a Missing Masterpiece</b> is a romp of a read: it's as fast-paced as the best suspense thriller, with vividly drawn characters and a lively lick of humor throughout. Starring the brilliant and irascible Scotland Yard art detective Charley Hill, this...

py puppets and fine prints If you're worried that the arts are succumbing to technology in this increasingly virtual age, our July gift books celebrations of timeless craft traditions that have endured over the decades will ease your mind. The genius of the Muppetmaster is honored in Jim Henson's Designs and Doodles: A Muppet Sketchbook written by Alison Inches, a former senior editor and...

loppy puppets and fine prints If you're worried that the arts are succumbing to technology in this increasingly virtual age, our July gift books celebrations of timeless craft traditions that have endured over the decades will ease your mind. The genius of the Muppetmaster is honored in Jim Henson's Designs and Doodles: A Muppet Sketchbook written by Alison Inches, a former senior editor and...

There is always a sensuous thrill of recognition when the format of a book matches its subject. This compendium of 19th-century British painting is of a piece with so many of the art works it contains: gorgeous, oversized, singularly committed to detail, rich in scope, endlessly fascinating, and almost exhausting to ponder for any length of time. With its stunning color reproductions and...

The latest in Phaidon's series of gorgeous oversized books is The American Art Book. In alphabetical order from Berenice Abbott's 1930s gelatin silver print of Manhattan at night to William Zorach's primitive-looking 1951 stone sculpture of a sleeping woman, there are 500 artists and works in this book. The breadth permits an impressive panorama of the artistic urge in America, from the...

Art, like music and literature, is valuable to humankind because it portrays life's pathos as well as life's joy and tells us that we are all connected, facing life together, not alone. In Sister Wendy's 1000 Masterpieces: Sister Wendy Beckett's Selection of the Greatest Paintings in Western Art, this well-known art historian offers us a magnificent collection of Western Art. From the stark...

ÃŠPerhaps one day the bodies of Michael Jordan and Wayne Gretzky will be the objects of scrutiny for cultural historians rooting for manifestations of genius and grace in late 20th-century life. For it is the physical actions of these present-day superheroes around which images of greatness are currently fashioned. Pioneering historian Simon Schama has taken such a unique approach to the...